Tokyo Game Show Encounters: Mega Man Universe for PS3

Tucked deep inside Capcom’s Tokyo Game Show hotel suite was the first hands-on build of Mega Man Universe, the upcoming PSN title that gives players a comprehensive toolset to build their own custom Mega Man levels and characters. Watch the new trailer below for a peek at the total package.

DualShock 3 clenched tightly in my sweaty hands, I powered through several of Mega Man Universe’s pre-generated levels, which are based on the fan-favorite Mega Man 2. I quickly discovered that some things never change: Mega Man Universe is freaking hard, even on the allegedly Easy mode. The levels were riddled with tricky moving platforms, brutal jumps, lethal spike pits, and the requisite homing-carrot-firing rabbit robots.

Of course, the difficulty level can vary wildly depending on the prowess of your custom Mega Man, which you upgrade by cobbling together spare parts from defeated bosses and iconic Capcom characters — Street Fighter’s Ryu and Ghosts ‘N Goblins Arthur were shown in the launch trailer, and more classic Capcom characters are sure to come.

In the early build I played, each custom Mega Man also featured eight Special Weapon slots, four Chip slots, and four Item Payload slots for further customization. These equipment choices affect not only your appearance and abilities, but your jumping height, movement speed, attack power, and more. The custom characters in the Tokyo Game Show build were pre-populated with a selection of Mega Men, everything from “Bad Box Art Mega Man” to variants called “Gust Man” and “Chop Man,” each with their own hodgepodge of strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities.

The cornerstone of Mega Man Universe, the level creator, isn’t yet playable. But if LittleBigPlanet is anything to go by, it’s sure to be the star of the show. Mega Man Universe is still early in its development cycle, and a PSN release date is still over the horizon. But stay tuned for a closer look at the level creation tools when they become available — we’ve got some plans for that bad boy.

I was hoping for a whole new Megaman game that would be sort of like Megaman Legends or.. Megaman NT,StarForce something on the PS3 O_o?
I like Megaman but I want to see something new and not classic NES style

Definitely a different look with a different charm. By going with 3D, I think they get more flexibility out of the character and level creation tools (it makes them more modular). The creation tools are absolutely the centerpiece here. Can’t wait to get my hands on the level creator!

I think the idea of modding jump height and movement speed sound better in theory than they’ll feel in execution. Classic Mega Man has a distinct feel to its movement. And as soon as you tamper with that its going to be really awkward for legacy fans to adjust to.

Also. Why rip off Mega Man 2? You couldn’t come up with new special weapons?

No, there is no charm. Taken out of context I think most series fans would assume the gameplay trailer to be something fan made. It literally looks like the character models and backgrounds are from two completely different games.

You reused the weapons, enemies, stage design pieces, music that I can see thus far. Is there anything original here beyond customization features?

Is that the music the game will have? It’s nice to hear those tunes being revisited, but a little more electronic soundtrack would have been better (after all, it’s the lo-fi chiptune quality that made those songs stand aout in the first place; this rock arrangement makes them sound generic).

Anyway, I’m not talking about an 8-bit soundtrack, just something more along the lines of electronic music (mainly Electro).

I got to say that I also am turned off by the polygonal artwork of this game, but I do appreciate what they are going for. They get more flexibility out of 3D models over 2D sprites. That’s probably the biggest reason that 2D is a dying art form, 3D is so much easier, and in some cases, better.

Still, I’ve got to cencede, the game doesn’t need to be ugly with the style they are going for. But I hope that they will do a better job updating the visuals to better fit Megaman, or at least not be as ugly as they currently are.

I think we ought to let Capcom know that we think it needs improvement though. If you compare the original Sonic the Hedghog 4 trailer to the more recent ones, you can see the difference in Sonics look. This was likely to address the loud outcry from fans after seeing the ugly 3D art. Hopefully this can do the same, and we can get a smoother cell shaded look.

This actually looks pretty great. The level creator will keep me up long nights. All those whining about the “look” shouldn’t even be playing MegaMan on a PS3. If you’re that hardcore-retro, go pull out your old NES cartridges and blow on them.

“Castlevania belongs in the 2d realm not the 3d” and now here are people complaining “weeeeh i want 3d megaman not a 2d nes crapper” i bet you if they did do a new megaman in 3d you’d all be like “weeeh Megaman belongs in the 2d realm not the 3d” my god people figure out what you want.

I’m just going to say that I love Mega Man, still have the classic series on their original cartridges, and am highly interested in this game … HOWEVER …

I will never again buy a game that is Mega Man 9 hard. That game shot for old school difficulty and completely overshot it. If you build a game for the ridiculous hardcore ninja crowd, that little section of people will be the only ones you please – everyone else that buys the game because they love Mega Man is going to get burned.

Gotta say I disagree with… well apparently everyone here. I think it looks nice. I wouldn’t have figured anyone thought otherwise if not for the apparently diehard fans here. The level customization sounds like a winning implementation. Plenty of room for creativity.

And as for the “classics,” I was there, and while they may have been something in their time (can’t say I thought so), the memories are seriously being romanticized to the n-millionth degree. “Quirks” of that era are simply considered flaws in today’s games. QA wasn’t terribly important back then- ironic that the hit-or-miss game development tactics of yesteryear are so highly regarded.

Artstyle is Ok, but could be better. Digging the Music though, reminds me of the guy on Youtube and Myspace with the Megaman guitar tracks. I was a little put back by looking at the stills, but the video makes it look better.

Well Mega Man and Little Big Planet have nothing in common.I mean sure,you can switch costumes and stuff BUT… on the other hand,you dont get weapons in Little Big Planet.In Mega Man,you get armor(witch is like costumes)you basicaly get what ever you want.

I for one am a huge megaman fan, I’m in love with the whole series. I cannot wait to play this game. Play Create Share = AWESOMENESS. Who ever says this is not good is committing blaspmeme. Megaman has always and will always reign supreme. All other platform style games will bow to megaman. ALL HAIL MEGAMAN! No demo here, straight buy day one.